Demo Play Thursday - Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club TOKIMEKI Roadmap to Future On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club: Tokimeki - Roadmap to Future.

As part of Stories on Tuesday, i've been playing more visual novels and that also includes demos. Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club: Tokimeki - Roadmap to Future is a style of visual novel i've not tried before as most of the games on this channel have been more serious or sad.

this demo at no point says that it's a demo so it's unclear if we're getting the full start of the game or if our save will carry over to the main game. there was no trailer nor link to the eShop either. The demo also ends rather abruptly. so as a demo experience, it's not great.

As for the story, i felt that it started strong and it gave the main cast of characters surprising depth to what, at first, seemed like shallow answers. But after the introductions and back stories were over, the style of story telling changed. Our character has lost some of their memory so the goal of the game appears to be that i need to re-make social connections to help remember. but the gameplay to do this makes the game feel more trial and error than i expected. we are free to choose where to go, but during the whole day we can only make 2 choices. in this video you'll see how sometimes my choice led to a character interaction with me and sometimes it was just me watching characters interact with each other. i found this style of story telling and gameplay unsatisfying.

If i make the wrong choice, my connections with my friends don't improve. but it's very difficult to make the right choice. it's not a 50/50 decision as there are so many choices to choose from, and with each day consisting of only 2 interactions, i felt genuine pressure to try and succeed at what amounts to at guessing. so for me, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club: Tokimeki - Roadmap to Future isn't the style of visual novel i want to play.

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 14 - The Flying Fortress

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

In Part 13 we made our way to the Flying Fortress and this Part focuses on the journey through it to beating Tiamat and getting the final crystal. it was also nice to get to look out of the window at the world below. to finish i got the sword Excalibur so i'm looking forward to trying it out in the next Part. one highlight from this part was discovering that my Master didn't need weapons equipped and now he's soo much more stronger than he had been up to this point.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/yehXjEWljbM

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/DVdc0-6uLXM

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/jb86mpdg_nA

Part 11 - https://youtu.be/h5u0JNtLCmg

Part 12 - https://youtu.be/RbIXaYmSKhI

Part 13 - https://youtu.be/Ps7KNTkX5pE

Stories on Tuesday - Arcade Spirits - Part 1 - The First Day

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Arcade Spirits from Fiction Factory Games. this is the disc version of the game, published by PQube.

This is Part 1 and it covers the first in-game day. it's unclear how long or short the other days will be so i don't know how long videos will be going forward or whether each part will be one or two days.

Cloud Monday - Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures - Part 1 - No Manual Saves

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I haven't done many games aimed at a younger audience as part of this series but when i saw there was a game from the Hotel Transylvania universe i thought this would be a good one to try as i've seen the first 3 Hotel Transylvania movies and enjoyed them.

None of the actors from the movies return to voice their characters in this game and for the most part it was fine. the only character that was really noticeable was Dracula. he's voiced by Adam Sandler in the movies, but here i felt that his character in the game sounded the most off but that could also be because he does the most talking in the game.

Much like the previous game i tried out for this series, Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures doesn't have a manual save system. there is an auto save system but it's difficult to trigger. what's really unclear is whether or not there is a checkpoint system and if it's tied into the auto save. i did perish and when i respawned it wasn't at the start of the level but rather somewhat close to where i failed. But there's nothing shown on screen to indicate that there's a checkpoint and i don't remember spotting the auto save whilst traversing a level. So that does mean, even just from Part 1, that i wouldn't recommend playing Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures from the cloud.

The game itself is a little rough. i did find myself fighting the camera a little but some of that could also be down to a little stick drift in my controller. the camera had some lag which could be down to the game being streamed but i suspect that it's an trait of the game as this is something that very rarely comes up in this series. There was some extreme pop-in as well, which is down to the game and not that it was being streamed. you can see fairly close to the camera that objects, shadows, and background elements would appear when directly in front of the camera and disappear when i moved the camera.

After just 1 Part, Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures doesn't feel well designed for being streamed from the cloud but itself has some issues as well.

Mobile Friday - mo.co - A Stylised Monster Exterminating Game With Relaxed MMO Elements

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried mo.co, from Supercell, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

Currently, mo.co is an invite only game so of course i applied and was granted an invite. if you're interested in trying out mo.co, head to https://mo.co/en/ to apply for yourselves.

Honestly, i think i came into this with the wrong impression of what the game was. i read it was some sort of monster hunting game and immediately i thought of the famous series from Capcom. mo.co is not that but you do seek out and destroy a lot of monsters in it. it's more of a monster exterminating game. there are locations where the locals are having issues with monsters, you go to these areas, deal with it, and then head back home. It's an experience designed for mobiles and short bursts of gameplay.

The gameplay is simple and yet satisfying. but what makes mo.co interesting is how it integrates an MMO experience into the game. When you travel to locations you are not alone in the world. there maybe main A.I characters in the world but there are other human controlled characters. everyone is here to achieve a goal but at no point does the game force us to team up. But if you're next to someone else and they kill a boss enemy, you both can get xp. if you use a area of effect heal move, that'll heal any other human character near by regardless if you're on the same team.

There are sections of this video where i don't team up with anyone, there are times i stumble upon a group tackling a boss and i join in. this is all done with no communication. towards the end of this video i did unlock a mode called Rifts. this mode has to be done in teams of 4 and it challenges the 4 players to defeat a boss as quickly as possible. your time is kept and the challenge is to defeat that boss with other players in a quicker time.

In this first play of mo.co i didn't unlock all the game modes so i don't know how deep the MMO elements go, but for now i like how relaxed it is about it. the game is also relaxed when it comes to finishing tasks and quests. often i would defeat the required enemies and not rush back to home and instead either help out those nearby, go to a hidden chest, or just keep on fighting. the experience is over when i choose it to be.

mo.co has been long in development and it shows because it is a very polished experience. even at the craziest screen filled moments i never noticed any lagging or graphical issues. the music is fantastic and the graphics have that bright "chunky" Supercell style. but i was surprised how barebones the tutorial was and some things in game are made much clearer than others. it feels like it's aimed more for "traditional gamers" than a causal audience but it wouldn't take may tweaks to make it more accessible to a causal audience.

Even tho mo.co is invite only at the moment, i do recommend it. i really enjoyed my time with it and i'm genuinely curious about the other modes i've yet to unlock and whether there's an actual story here. 

Version 8.96.1 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Rusty Rabbit On Switch

For this week's #Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Rusty Rabbit.

At first glance, i assumed Rusty Rabbit was another in a long line of shovelware on Switch but after checking out the eShop page and reading that somewhat famous companies Nitroplus and NetEase were behind the game i was really curious to see what they had come up with.

I did go into this demo expecting it to look worse than it actually did. there was something about the screenshots and video on the eShop page that made it look like a lower resolution game and got me thinking that this would be a lesser experience in comparison to the PS5 version of the game. thankfully this is a great demo and that wasn't the case.

this demo makes it clear that it is a demo but more importantly it says that the save file from this demo will work in the retail version of the game, it's something that a lot of demos don't mention. there are also links at the start of the demo to get the game from the eShop and at the end of the demo. as an experience, it's certainly one of the better demos i've played as part of this playlist.

Right from the start, this demo for Rusty Rabbit impresses. the music on the home screen was great and it's great throughout. the main character Rusty is well written and performed. he was surprisingly likeable, more so when the other characters were introduced. the tutorial is good and smartly incorporates mechanics into actual gameplay, dishing them out a little at a time so it's never overwhelming. that approach also works well with the #Metroidvania style of gameplay in Rusty Rabbit. we have more abilities at the start than when the demo ends but it's well written into the story as to why.

The story is teased a little bit more on the eShop page than it was in this demo but the world building and some of the back story revealed do help make it less obvious how little story we're going with at present. i am curious as to where it's going to go and what other characters will be introduced.

If i had to pick a shortcoming after playing this demo it's that i don't know who we, the player, are. at times it feels like Rusty is talking directly to us but because the world is presented so cohesively, it does make me wonder if Rusty is breaking the 4th wall or if there's more to it.

I highly recommend the demo for Rusty Rabbit. it presents a great first hour of the game. if you're interested in a character driven metroidvania with rpg elements, then this is well worth checking out. 

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 13 - The Journey To The Flying Fortress

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

I was lost at the start of this Part. i knew that i had to head for Lufenia but the guide i was using wasn't as accurate as i would've liked. but i got a hint in Gaia and eventually found it. The Mirage Tower was easier to find and easier to navigate than i expected. But with no Inn this part, i still have to be careful and i made sure to heal my team up at the end as i'm looking forward to exploring the Flying Fortress in the next part.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/yehXjEWljbM

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/DVdc0-6uLXM

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/jb86mpdg_nA

Part 11 - https://youtu.be/h5u0JNtLCmg

part 12 - https://youtu.be/RbIXaYmSKhI

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - From Start To Finish On PS4

I have combined all 7 parts of my playthrough of Coffee Talk into one story. Linking the videos was difficult so after every two days, like how each part is two days, there is an abrupt change of music as it goes into a loading screen.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/SzmUGL0HkGk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/pe15t9oNvsk

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/hkBmyzf9qH4

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/FANECqWTp68

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/4KeOesIpZVU

Cloud Monday - Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization - Part 2 - Not Cloud Streaming Recommended

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 1 I was surprised that there didn’t seem to be any way to manually save in this game. There are Auto Saves, but they don’t seem to be as smart as I would like for a game being streamed from the cloud. We’d get an auto save when moving from area to area in a town but out in the wild they were less frequent and rarely after a lengthy conversation. 

So to me, it wasn’t surprising that when I was given the 20 second countdown, before being disconnected from the service, I was unable to leave a conversation and therefore unable to trigger an auto save. 

So whilst I’m not going to recommend people stream this from the cloud, I am also not saying Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is a bad game. It has a few quirks and I’m certain the sound issues weren’t from streaming it. The combat is solid and I do like how the story lets us learn more about the past, which is useful for those like me who hasn’t played any of these games before, or carry on like we know everything already. 

Mobile Friday - Fishing Fantasy -FishingRPG- Simple Fishing Mechanics Done Well With A Good Tutorial

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Fishing Fantasy -FishingRPG-, on my iPhone 14 Pro, from  TrickStArStudio Games.

Fishing Fantasy -FishingRPG- is one of the simpler games i've played as part of this series but that's not a negative. there is a great tutorial that shows off every aspect of the game which makes Fishing Fantasy -FishingRPG- one of the more accessible games i've played. another aspect of the game that makes it accessible is how most, if not all, of it is playable with just one hand.

As a game centered around fishing, Fishing Fantasy -FishingRPG- hasn't over complicated that aspect of the gameplay. you have a rod, attach bait, and throw out the line. when there's a bite you hit a button and get a fish. if that fish is a higher level than you, you hit that button repeatedly. the fish you catch are recorded and there are quests around this. by catching fish and completing quests you gain exp and level up. as you level up you unlock more locations and equipment to use.

One aspect of the game i would've liked a little more was the story. our character wakes up in this world but in terms of story there was a lot at the start of the game and not much else in this video. there was no clear indication when the next story beat was coming. as the game is centered around the fishing, this isn't that much of a negative. but it's something i missed and maybe a reason why this video is shorter than other Mobile Friday videos.

I do recommend Fishing Fantasy -FishingRPG-. it's not the best but it is satisfying. i'd like more story and a better English translation, but both of these don't detract from what this game sets out to do.

Version 2.0.1 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Pilo and the Holobook On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Pilo and the Holobook.

i didn't know anything about this game before i started playing the demo, but on the eShop, i did like the look of the game and that you'd be scanning. i was hoping that this demo would help show off more about the game and what you're doing. I think it did a great job at that.

The demo seems to be taken from the first hour, or so, of Pilo and the Holobook, from the start until our encounter with hints of the big bad of the game. nearly all the game mechanics have a tutorial and we seem able to play the game at our own pace. the biggest frustration was the one time the game required us to do something that wasn't tutorised. in the dessert, there's a moment where we need to corral some electric sheep and i missed it the first time and accidently stumbled upon the solution my second time there. a mechanic the developers don't make use of is our own character quipping or talking to themselves possible solutions to an issue. i can see this being a possible stumbling block to progress.

But on the whole, Pilo and the Holobook looked great, played great, and was really chill. i could've finished it sooner but i genuinely enjoyed walking around and scanning.  the music was fine but, as i said in the video, i feel like this would be a good game to play whilst listening to a podcast.

I didn't get the impression that Pilo and the Holobook was purely aimed towards kids, but it did feel like it would be suitable. as an adult, i did enjoy my time with the demo and wouldn't say no to getting it when it comes out. if you're curious about a game where scanning is the main mechanic, then this is a great demo for you to try. but after playing it i'd almost say the game itself is worth getting without playing the demo.

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 12 - The Sunken Shrine And The Water Crystal

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

Most of Part 12 took place in the The Sunken Shrines.  i initially took most of the right turns and ended up at the boss before half way. the dungeon itself didn't turn out to be too dangerous but the boss was the toughest boss we've come across so far. as i took the correct way to the boss, and the water crystal, i went back in to try out the other way and was reward with more loot, exp, and money.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/yehXjEWljbM

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/DVdc0-6uLXM

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/jb86mpdg_nA

Part 11 - https://youtu.be/h5u0JNtLCmg

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 7 - The Final Part

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 7, the final part.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/SzmUGL0HkGk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/pe15t9oNvsk

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/hkBmyzf9qH4

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/FANECqWTp68

Cloud Monday - Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization - Part 1 - Lengthy Cutscenes And No Manual Saves

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I know of but have never played nor watched anything Sword Art Online. But i do know that the main concept is that it's meant to fake an MMO. so i was curious if that would extend to how it saves. MMO's will keep track of your character, what they're doing, where they are, and their stats their end but would this fake one? If it did, it would mean i would never have to worry about the 20 second warning before being disconnected.

But after this first hour it seems clear that there are only auto saves in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization and, unless it was somewhere i couldn't find or i haven't unlocked it yet, no manual saves. for some parts of this game, like moving around the main town Aincrad, you trigger the auto save when you exit one area and enter another. this might be doable when a 20 second warning appears. but other than that, it wasn't too clear how and when it auto saves nor what would trigger it.

As is somewhat expected for a game of this type, this first part is full of cutscenes, character introductions, and expositions. this means there are minutes where we aren't able to do anything other than continue the conversation or, by using the L1 and R1 buttons, try and skip through it. skipping isn't ideal as for me, someone not familiar with this series, i'd want to watch them and learn about the past and the present. The auto saves are clear in the top right, but if you're going to get a 20 second warning during one of these cutscenes you're going to either miss out on story tell, assuming it'll autosave when it's done, or have to go back and sit through the same story piece again.

From this first hour, the save system and lengthy cutscenes do make Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization somewhat unsuitable for being streamed from the cloud. We'll see in Part 2 if things improve in regard to this. other than that, and the games odd camera delay, there are positives in regards to it's design and it's suitability. the graphics are simple, big, and colorful, which meant when we had some hiccups with the stream it never got in the way of gameplay. the controls feel responsive and i felt no lag there with the stream either.

Mobile Friday - DDDigger - A Fun Digging Game With Nice Graphics And Music, But Has Intrusive Ads

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried DDDigger, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

it's another game from developers treeplla that may look simple at first but actually has some fun gameplay. You can check out my videos for Idle Lumbercat - Wood Games, https://youtu.be/j074foqCgrg, and Cat Snack Bar, https://youtu.be/hhqyaTmhXw4, if you want to know more about games from this developer. what's interesting about DDDigger, in comparison to those games, is that it's not really an idle game. there is a small idle mechanic in it, but the point is to play to earn coins, use those coins to upgrade weapons, play and go further and earn more coins, and so on.

The tutorial is barely there, but it's just enough to get the basics across and the game is basic enough to grasp it quickly, and if you don't it's not an issue as failing and trying again is part of this game's genre and ties into it's mechanics. no matter how good or bad you do, you'll earn some coins. the graphics are simple but effective. it's clear which levels of dirt has enemies, which have gold, the helpers are also distinct and each weapon is easy to see. there maybe a lot happening at times but i found it easy to see and follow what was happening.

What i'm not too happy about with DDDigger is it's claim that "Offline Adventure. Enjoy the game anytime, anywhere without an internet connection!" that it has in the app store. sure, there was no data download at the start and that is fantastic. but it does have intrusive ads. at the start of the video i was praising it for giving us the choice whether we wanted to get some in-game reward for watching an ad. it didn't bother me that it was offering different rewards at different points for watching an ad. i even praised DDDigger for be smart with it's in-game store ads as it kept them to items we've used. no, where DDDigger goes wrong is having ads suddenly popup after a run. there was no warning, no asking for permission, and i certainly wasn't expecting it to have them because it claimed that it was an off-line game. it appears the ads come after every 2 games played.

In this video, the ad situation wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. but i can easily envision that as you get further into the game, you'll need to start grinding out games to earn enough coins to level up stuff. this'll mean having to play more and more games, which means more and more ads. these videos use data and it wouldn't take long for the ads to slowly eat into data limits. because of this, i can only really recommend DDDigger to be played over wi-fi. i had a good time playing it, i really enjoyed the music too, but the ad situation completely changes things.

Version 1.1.7 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue from developers Lost Pilgrims Studio.

I'll admit that going in i didn't know what type of RPG it was and it ended up being a type of RPG that i don't enjoy playing and haven't played much before. i tried to not let that get in the way of my playthrough of this demo. i didn't get to the end of this demo in this video as by the end i really wasn't enjoying myself.

right from the start, even before i started recording, i was waiting for the game to load. that first load took well over 3 minutes, very often showing very unhelpful tips. Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue is built on Unity, an engine that's notorious for how bad it runs on base model PS4s. This demo had already been patched twice to 1.02 so i went in expecting things to go better than they did because after the load was an introduction video to the story that stuttered both visually and audibly. 

So, Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue makes a poor first impression. next was the home screen and i didn't mind the notices on screen but they were tiny in comparison to how much free space there was. i saw the bug reporting and as i had encountered a couple already i was going to submit but then it turned out the report form hadn't been formatted for consoles and i certainly didn't want to type out a report using just a controller. there are more issues going into the options as only the font size option showed what it actually did. i haven't played the game and yet it expects me to know what game specific changes can be made without any examples. And even tho i made the font change, it rarely actually appeared as big as i wanted. as far as i'm concerned that option either doesn't work is mislabeled. Another option that didn't seem to work great was the full screen UI Zoom as it looked slightly blurry and weird.

after about 14 minutes i finally get to the gameplay, and here i'm greeted by a great choice. Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue lets the player choose if they want to play it as envisioned by the developers or if they want an easier more story focused approach. i like that they clearly define what the difficulty levels are. But, it talks about achievements which Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue doesn't have.

We finally get to the story and are greeted by small text, not what we set in the options, but thankfully it's voiced. however, at the time, i wasn't really sure who was talking. the art is static, something i'm not used to in the story telling games i play. i imagined that we would be introduced to our character first, not some random person. But as that person talked, i fully expected the rest of the game to feature voice acting and i was wrong. again, in story games i'm used to playing i'm used to not only seeing who's talking but them either speaking the text on screen of adding sound effects. this style of story telling was something i didn't quite get used to by the end of the video. an issue i had with this style were the options of where the conversation should go. i think i disagreed with nearly all the conversation options throughout Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue.

the tutorials were often useful but quite overwhelming and screen filling. but there were times when the tutorials would use words that aren't used in-game as often symbols are used instead. if they use a symbol, the tutorial should use it too. this meant that when it came to money, i was wrong. i thought the round symbol was money but instead it was the colored balls. i needed the tutorial to point this out and it didn't.

I could go on, but i think i've got the point across that there was a lot about Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue i didn't enjoy. there's more in the video, too. some of it will be due to the style of RPG it is, but poor performance and poor tutorials is down to the developers. i can agree that my issues with the story are probably just down to me.

Does Vagrus - The Riven Realms: Prologue succeed as a Prologue, no. calling it a "Prologue" puts pressure on this to deliver a story that makes us want to continue. i don't think it does this. if it was just called a demo, i think it would've been fine and be in-line with other games i've played recently. but i do think "BETA" would've been more appropriate for the state it's in. with the game launching soon, after playing this i wouldn't recommend getting it not only for my issues with the start of the game but also the state of it, too.

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 11 - Dragons, Class Changes, And Onrac

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the #PlayStationPortable version of #FinalFantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on #UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from #GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

In Part 11 i did a lot of little tasks that didn't seem to be a part of the main story line. In Part 10, i did the Citadel of Trials and got a reward. Here, i was able to take that reward and got a buff to my character classes. one thing that was made clear to me in this part was that the guide i'm using is skipping some of the story telling. twice i went off to different places in this video to get a fairy and a warp cube. from my playing, there were no story reasons for this. but in Onrac i talked to everyone and found people who would've given me the story for finding the fairy. i'd been curious if i had been missing some of the story telling and now it's clear to me that i have. i can understand why the guide skips some of it as it's streamlining the experience. but for me i think i would've liked to have got the story and then used the guide to find out where to go next. i don't think i'm going to change things in the future videos as i've already used it as much as i have.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/yehXjEWljbM

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/DVdc0-6uLXM

Part 10 - https://youtu.be/jb86mpdg_nA

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 6 - October 2nd and October 3rd

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 6.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/SzmUGL0HkGk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/pe15t9oNvsk

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/hkBmyzf9qH4

Cloud Monday - Hotshot Racing - Part 2 - No Save Options During Grand Prix, Empty Online Lobbies

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Hotshot Racing on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In Part 2, my goal was to try out the online features and see if there would be any lag or any issues playing it via the Cloud. i wasn't expecting there to be issues as i've played online modes before in this series. unfortunately, there wasn't anyone else playing online. Initially tho i didn't think this was going to be an issue as it populated the race screen with Ai racers. but under that screen in small text it actually said we would need either 2 or 4 human players to start a race. seeing those Ai racers did get my hopes up. There was another section of the online that had labeled a section Servers. but as it wasn't populating i didn't know if this meant this section was going to show available races to join, available servers to join (as in a named server,) or available servers (as in regional servers.)

With nothing happening online i went back to Grand Prix and even tho the "enemy" tried their best to take me out i did manage to get gold. i only ever played on Normal difficulty level and i found the Ai of the computer racers to be really tough, in terms of their racing ability and their attempts at taking me out. i mentioned in the video that if often felt like i did bad because of them rather than because of my own skill. a comparison i tried to highlight was when they hit me and i would loose control and end up pointing in the wrong direction but when i hit them they had a moment of instability before straightening up like nothing ever happened. simply put, the Ai in Hotshot Racing didn't feel fair.

With their being no saves between races in Grand Prix and no online modes to speak of, the only thing worth doing in Hotshot Racing via the cloud would be either time trial or single races. because of this i can say it's only FINE at best when it comes to it's performance being streamed from the cloud. a game this small is better off being installed locally.

Online Saturday - War Robots: Frontiers - My First Time

War Robots: Frontiers is a free to play game that recently came out on the PSN. i downloaded it to my PS4 when it came out and since then the game has been regularly updated, tho my PS4's update section for the game says it's 1.01 even tho the game is now 1.10. So coming into the game i was confident that i would get a decent gameplay experience. for me, what i was really interested in seeing was how the game would tackle the tutorial as this has been a huge let down across nearly all of the free to play games i've tried out.

Unfortunately, even tho War Robots: Frontiers does have a tutorial it's quite bad. one of the first examples is when you start the first tutorial. it'll explain the game mode you're playing and the requirements to win it, then it'll let you play without explaining the loadout of your mech and what each of the buttons do. the tutorial is against bots and already pauses the action so i really don't understand why it can't do it again to explain my mech's loadout and how to use it. even after the live stream, there's at least one attack on each mech i don't fully understand.

It doesn't get any better on the home screen. this is often the biggest challenge for free to play games as they often fill it with icons and adverts and such, but then don't explain most of it or any of it. Mobile games have the best approach to home screens, usually greying out modes and options we don't need right now, haven't unlocked as yet, or it hasn't explained. War Robots: Frontiers has a busy home screen and there are times it tries to explain stuff but the first couple of times i missed it because it highlights a section ever so slightly and it times out really quick. War Robots: Frontiers really needs to ask the player if they want a tutorial. if they don't, fine let us play. but it we do it needs to take things one step at a time, slowly, and with examples.

And just as importantly, the tutorial needs to be smart and restrictive enough that we can't fail it. i found out near the end of the live stream that i made a mistake in a much earlier tutorial to the point where it had a negative impact on my gameplay as i should've had 4 mechs and not the 3 i used. a smart tutorial would've also been helpful cause the game would've noticed i've not used L2 since it started and it could've told me that i should use it as i felt really stupid when i accidently pressed the button and saw that it zoomed in and was really useful.

War Robots: Frontiers is lucky that the basic gameplay is solid. even tho here in Yokohama Japan i was mostly playing against bots, their ai was sufficient for me to have some really fun games. it's entirely possible that there are more players on other servers, but i don't know because the game never shows that information. it was very frustrating that i wasn't able to pick what game mode i wanted to play or, like Foam Stars, tell the game which modes that it offers i wanted to play. there's only a Play button and we get what we're given. 

So with War Robots: Frontiers' poor and frustrating tutorial, so-so UI and home screen experience, and lack of match information and choice, i agree with my chat that War Robots: Frontiers is fine at best but not really something i want to keep playing regularly. if they overhaul what surrounds the good gameplay and improve the user experience and make it accessible to new players then i'd be happy to stream it again. but as it is, War Robots: Frontiers is more frustrating than it should be and more than what it's gameplay can overcome. 

Mobile Friday - Meow Kingdom: Cute Cat Idle RPG - A Satisfying Mix Of Old And New Idle Mechanics

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Meow Kingdom: Cute Cat Idle RPG, also known as Meow Kingdom, on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

As well as how good the game looked from the screenshots and how frequently it had been updated since i downloaded it, i was also interested to try out this game because i wanted to see how/why it's download was over 1GB in size. many of the Idle Games i've tried out as part of this series are a lot smaller than Meow Kingdom. But after playing it for an hour, i have a good idea why it's as big as it is.

It's a little unfortunate that Meow Kingdom starts with such a compressed introduction video as everything after it looked much better. i was pleasantly surprised by how much artwork there was for each character and it really helped portray the emotions of each character. i thought the main characters had so much that it really stood out when it came to the introduction of Gong and their lack of artwork.

The game has a decent tutorial that takes things, mostly, one step at a time and even has videos for some things too. But there are times when it feels like the game has forgotten to mention something. the first example i can think of is when the tutorial mentions increasing game speed but never mentions what the "A" button next to it does. there was also an example late on in the video where the game wouldn't let me install a building because the game's tutorial was going to do it. but for the most part it does a great job for new gamers and Meow Kingdom feels quite accessible. 

The idle mechanics of Meow Kingdom feel a little older than some other aspects of the game. as well as collecting gold and experience from buildings in our town, there are other things we can do to interact with the world, which isn't something i've seen that much in games i've played as part of this series. for example, if you don't touch the screen, the game enables a screensaver of sorts that'll follow cats around. you can interact with the cats by picking them up and getting them to do some things or you can zoom in and pet them or take a photo of them. the cats have wants that are telegraphed by bubbles above their heads, much like the Theme Park/Rollercoaster Tycoon/Two Point games do. around the town, there are items you can touch that'll give you more gold and help keep the place tidy. these little interactions give Meow Kingdom an older feel as i associate these menial tasks with the games i mentioned before. but i think they work well with the game.

The combat in Meow Kingdom is what makes this game feel modern. like the rest of the game, the combat looks great with the enemies looking very distinct and the boss enemies looming bigger over us. at this point in the game we're only able to have 5 characters in our team but it was unclear if we're going to have more. each of those cats can be placed in a grid, or you can ask the game to auto assign the best cats in their best positions. once that's done, your team sets off after the enemies. there's a choice to do the combat at normal speed or to speed it up, but if you press the "A" button, combat will be automated. even tho it's tempting to speed up the combat, i'd suggest doing it sometimes at normal speed because of how flashy some of the attacks are and how well animated it all looks. once the fight is over we're greeted with another cool looking victory screen.

If you're a fan of idle games, a fan of cats, or you're after a good looking game, i'd recommend giving Meow Kingdom a go. there's more to it than just it's cute exterior with solid idle mechanics, solid battle mechanics, and a story that's been simple yet fun so far. there's plenty to do in this game, there were aspects of it i'd yet to unlock in this video. but with it's relaxed pace and feel, there's little pressure to race to the finish. 

Version 00.15.01 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land On #PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land.

Atelier from Gust is a series i've been aware of for a long time and i even have the PS3 version of Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland, tho i've not really played much if any of it. i've always been curious but never given the series the time it deserves, so when the DEMO for Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land came out i was keen to give it a go and i'm glad i did.

This PS4 version of the game didn't feel like a downgraded version of the game. it looked fantastic, sounded great, and the controls felt responsive. the loading times were perhaps the only thing that felt a tad long but they weren't too frequent. going in and out of battles was seamless and when i got to the second part of the demo, the open world had no loading as i moved from place to place.

As a demo itself, and as the opening to Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, it's very welcoming to new players. the demo, and probably the start of the game, goes step by step introducing how the game is played by modern feeling tutorials. more and more, games are moving away from just text on a screen on how to do something and this game is a great example as it shows videos of what should happen. the level design is also smart enough so that you're able to try out each new thing one after another instead of having to do it all at once. the first part of the demo is also always pushing you forward, with stuff happening to the level meaning you're not able to back track and that you're unlikely to damage yourself going forward.

It wouldn't be until the second half of the demo when it tries to explain the Atelier powers aspect of the game that i feel like the tutorial kept things simple but tried to explain too much in one go. story wise, it made sense, but for us unfamiliar with this aspect of the series it was a lot to take in all at once. i feel like they could've made it simpler or broken it up into more steps over a longer time instead of the lore dump it felt like at the time.

But i said this did fit into the story as our character does come across, more so in the second half of the demo, as someone what excitable and keen to share Atelier Alchemy. as we find out, there are a lot of others less keen on it and her so when two people come along to assist our character it makes sense why we get a lot of it all at once. 

I didn't finish the demo in this video, but i did end it just after a story tease by the game. the title of the game, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land, has been shown to tie into the game so when the possible tease of more story happened, it wasn't shocking but it did feel appropriate.

There are a few things about this demo for Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land that feel a little stereotypical or tropey, but from what i played it's not in a negative way. i enjoyed the gameplay, the story, and the world this demo introduced. the only thing slightly disappointing about this demo was how it failed to detail what each of the difficulty settings do. even tho it's tutorial was modern, this did feel like an oversight. personally, i like playing for the story so i would keep the difficulty at easy. but after playing this demo and seeing how fun the combat is, if i were to get the game i'd actually play it on normal.

I think this demo for, and most likely the start of, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is great and well worth trying for those who are curious. i tried the PS4 version and it played great, i didn't feel like i was getting a lesser version of the game.

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 5 - September 30th and October 1st

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 5.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/SzmUGL0HkGk

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/pe15t9oNvsk

Cloud Monday - Hotshot Racing - Part 1 - Fast, Retro Style Arcade Action With Attacking Racers

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Hotshot Racing

on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

I haven't checked out many racing games as part of this Cloud Monday series so when i was looking for one to try Hotshot Racing caught my eye as i felt that it could not only be fun to play but it's arcade racing style and fast gameplay could be an interesting challenge for a game being streamed from the cloud.

Now, the first thing that will become apparent is that my PS4 controller started playing up as i started playing this game. it appears i now have stick drift in my right analogue stick and in Hotshot Racing that stick controls the camera. so i'm unable to use the boost much in this video but after the initial confusion things do seem to become manageable.

This issue i had did highlight a big issue or reveal that Hotshot Racing does not have control customisation. this will mean that the game isn't the most accessible. combined with the fact there was no tutorial, no introduction race, and only the controller layout as a screen, really highlights that perhaps the developers stuck a bit too close to the retro style for the good and bad of the user experience. 

Here, there was a thunderstorm outside but for the most part my internet connection remained stable. whilst playing Hotshot Racing, the main issue i noticed with the video stream was some macro blocking. this is when instead of fine detail, colours become larger squares. but in Hotshot Racing, this never became a problem because of the retro graphical style. there's not much fine detail anywhere in the game so when there was macro blocking it really wasn't that noticeable. it wouldn't surprise me if it happened at other moments during gameplay and i just didn't notice it.

I didn't notice any issues streaming the game during this play time. the controls were responsive, there were no drops in bitrate, no lowering of the resolution, no artifacts, and after the beginning of the stream no warnings about the stream.

But playing Hotshot Racing wasn't the true retro arcade experience that i thought it would be. it looks like games from the late Mega Drive to PlayStation 1 era, but the music didn't quite feel right for this type of game. at times, it felt like the music might've been more appropriate for a WipeOut style game. but the thing that i noticed immediately were the other racers. older racing games of this style usually start of with easy opponents and as you progress through the cups the ai of the other racers gets progressively more and more difficult. i did all my racing today on normal difficulty and i thought the other racers were out to wreck me instead of racing against me. 

This works against Hotshot Racing and combined with the lack of an intro race or controller customisation really does make Hotshot Racing feel like it's not that accessible for friendly for those who are curious. You'll hear me say that i tried out racing styles and cars similar to Ridge Racer because i have that experience. for those who don't have that experience, i honestly think it could take several attempts to finish the first race, let alone try to win it.

Mobile Friday - Remi Zeros: Card Defense - Good Looking Wave Based Game That Gets The Basics Right

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Remi Zeros: Card Defense on my iPhone 14 Pro.

There were a few things on Remi Zeros: Card Defense's store page that caught my attention. the art style certainly stands out but the screenshots and video also seemed to show how simple the game was to play.

I wasn't expecting the story sequence at the start and because i enjoyed it i was a little disappointed that i never saw anymore story stuff during this video. it's possible that as we progress to other stages there maybe story between them, but i can't say for sure.

The graphical style extends from the story intro into the main menu and into the gameplay. i really thought it was cool how the summon sequence works, taking our character lurking in the background and brining them to the front and they themselves do the summoning. so it was a shame that by the end of the video, with my home screen filling up with icons, that the devs seemed not to be taking full advantage of the phone screen and instead clogging up the middle and detracting from what had once been a cool sequence.

Thankfully the gameplay remained solid throughout. Remi Zeros: Card Defense starts with a good tutorial that makes it clear what to do but also reveals from the start what the basic gameplay loop is. what i will say is that there were a couple of times when the tutorial was trying to be useful but was also dumb because i didn't have the materials to do what it was trying to show me or it wanted to show off a powerful attack but i had already cleared the screen of enemies.

I do have a possible concern and that's making progress in the game could take a long time. it's not clear how much content is in the game but on the home screen it only mentions two stages. i'm wondering if the slow progress is going to be because of how little content there is and that whilst the start may move at a decent pace, it'll require more and more playing to earn more and more souls to level up just once or twice. the game does offer some incentives to watch adverts to gain boosts or daily logins to get rewards, but i'm unsure if it's enough.

But for now, as the game is, i would recommend Remi Zeros: Card Defense. it's great for new players, has a bit of strategy and luck to it which means it differs run to run. everytime you play you earn something that'll help you progress and for now that progress is fine.

Version 1.3.1 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Bubble Ghost Remake On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Bubble Ghost Remake.

Whilst i have played on an Atari ST, i haven't played the original version of Bubble Ghost so i wasn't really sure how it played going in. the eShop page tells the features of the game, but i didn't read that it was about managing a bubble so i was surprised by that gameplay feature. i wasn't expecting the character to be the thing that rotates either, in my mind i was expecting something akin to LocoRoco when you rotate the stage. so the start of the game is a little rough whilst i adjust to how it plays.

Bubble Ghost Remake looks great on Switch. the character art is also great to. playing this on a TV was a great experience. even tho it looked so good, i didn't notice any slowdown either. the game also uses a mix of a comic/book style at the start to tell it's story and that looks just as good. 

But there are aspects of the demo that feel a little dated or not as modern as they could. the first one i came across was the inability to change the difficulty in a level. i can understand why part way through a level it would be difficult to do so, but they could've reloaded the stage at a different difficulty. Bubble Ghost Remake is a difficult game but it's hard to gauge how difficult it is as it's a remake of such an old game. having a demo helps and it really is something i'd recommend people try before playing it. But once you've started, if you think it's too hard your only options are to loose all progress and start over from the beginning at a different difficulty level, quit completely, or just try over and over making slow progress. The other weird thing was having the leaderboards for the speed running aspect of the game not in the speed running section of the game.

I did complete the demo and i can say that at no point does the demo say if the save data carries over into the retail version of the game. there isn't a trailer, artwork, or screenshots once you finish the demo either. but i do recommend people play the demo as there is a lot to play and it'll help you understand how difficult it is, what the gameplay style is, and just how great it looks. personally, after playing the demo i'd set it to the easiest difficulty level as for me i'm interested in seeing the art and the story rather than the gameplay mechanic. 

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 10 - Getting The Airship And Citadel Of Trials

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

There were to big things that happened in this part. the first was getting the Airship. whilst it looked cool on screen, i can't help but think that this scene could've had an fmv sequence. the music whilst in the airship is nice. once we had it, the guide pointed us in the direction of the Citadel of Trials. but i don't know why and i feel that it's either the guide of the game, or both, at fault for the lack of why we're going where we're going. for example, it's the game fault if there's no one telling us to go there or the games not pointing us there. it's the guide's fault if the guide is not getting us to talk to the people who would be telling us where to go. so whilst i'm following the guide, i'm not sure about the why we're going where it's telling us.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/yehXjEWljbM

Part 9 - https://youtu.be/DVdc0-6uLXM

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 4 - 28th and 29th of September

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 4.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/SzmUGL0HkGk

Online Saturday - Tetris 99 - 46th Maximus Cup Switch LIVE STREAM

The Quality of the Live Stream at the start is poor but it does improve by the end.

I start of trying to get the Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition theme, and once that's done my chat and i fight against each other to win. I didn't get my win against the 99, but i did get many top 30 finishes and even into the top 10!

Mobile Friday - The New Denpa Men - An Underwhelming Switch Port

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried The New Denpa Men on my iPhone 14 Pro.

I've tried the Switch version of The New Denpa Men and over two videos i found the experience to be somewhat old fashioned and slow but nothing great nor bad about it. It was a port from the 3DS, so this iOS version is a port of a port.

Unfortunately, it sticks far too close to the Nintendo Switch version. the biggest issue how often the screen resolution changes. sometimes it uses the full iPhone screen. other times, there are black bars at the sides making it closer to a Widescreen TV aspect ratio. Another noticeable issue, well maybe not an issue but something that sticks out, is how some of the graphics look really good and maybe even clearer than the Switch version and others looks straight from the 3DS version of the game. 

The one big change from the Switch version to this version is how you get Denpa Men. on phones, you'll scan QR Codes and then collect the Denpa that appear. you can hit manner mode and that'll remove the video feed from the camera. But much like most aspects of The New Denpa Men, it's never really explained why this is needed in the first place or even what you should be looking for. i complained with the Switch version that the lack of tutorials and explanations hurt the game because i never felt like i was getting the most of what it had to offer. and again, that whole style has been ported to phones and again for me it just doesn't work. 

This port, much like the console port, feels like it's designed for fans of the series whilst offering little as an introduction for new players.

Version 4.0.0 then 4.0.20 Played.

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 9 - Completing The Cavern of Ice

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from Game FAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

In Part 8 my party was defeated. i didn't save, i didn't bring enough items, and it caught me out. so for this part, i learned the lessons and made it through the Cavern of Ice. some things were a little different this time round as i managed to remember a couple of places in the cavern so navigating it seemed to go smoother. i also don't remember picking up the Flame Sword in Part 8 and getting it here did seem to give my team a bit of a boost.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

Part 8 - https://youtu.be/yehXjEWljbM

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 3 - 26th and 27th of September

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from  Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 3.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/hNdeC5zIv6E

Cloud Monday - Two Point Campus - A Fun Game That's Well Designed To Be Streamed From The Cloud

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Two Point Campus on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

We found out in Part 1 that the game has a great auto save, and two manual save options. this is great for any game that's being played from the Cloud as currently Sony only gives a 20 second warning before disconnection. this means, should we get this countdown, we should be able to safely save if and when it's needed. this makes playing the game a much more relaxing time as we're very much in control.

But that's not to say the experience across both parts has been perfect.  in both videos there have been mostly minor issues. what we're playing is a video stream and at times the video has had issues like macro blocking, where instead of fine details there are larger squares of colors, and some stream tears, where there are streaks of grey across the screen for less than a second. Whilst they have been noticeable, they haven't got in the way of the gameplay experience. this is mostly due to the games design as well, the ability to zoom in or swing the camera around helps remove and issues with the video and when there are issues it's still mostly clear what everything is due to the simple art styles.

the bigger question is if Two Point Campus is worth playing. I think it is, but it's not a perfect experience. the tutorial is poor and/or not very smart. in Part two, the example that frustrated me was when i needed a loan, the game's advisors told me i needed a loan, but then never told me where it is or how to get one. so i went a few months deeper into debt as i expected the game to bring it up itself seeing as it mentioned it. i also have small annoyances with placing objects, but that could be a me thing. what was a little surprising was how i took the lessons learnt from the first part, when it came to designing a school, and applied them at my second school only to find that those lessons learnt weren't really needed as a whole bunch of new stuff was needed to be done instead. i can't help but feel that the pacing there was a little off, or the advisors could've said something at the start before i spent all that money.

Demo Play Thursday - Battleminer Giants on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Battleminer Giants from  Wobbly Tooth Games. 

I wanted to try this demo as i really liked the artwork of the solo giant enemy and the solo adventurer. a part of me hoped that this was going to be some sort of Shadow of Colossus kind of game, but the brief description on the PSN Store made it clear that it wasn't that. But i was still interested in trying it.

This is a short video because it is a short demo. there's only one thing to do, defeat the giant enemy. i failed in my first attempt, the enemy defeated me. but this broke the demo as i couldn't workout what to do when i respawned in town. i can't craft and there were no stores to purchase items at as my bow had broke. it was this point where we learned that the demo has skipped the earlier tutorials in the game and has put us at the first major activity. as i couldn't do anything, i had to quit and try again.

the second time i was much more successful, but in beating the giant enemy i triggered the demo to end. there appeared to be a save system but at no point did the demo say if saves would carry over to the final game. there were no trailers, screenshots, or artwork when we beat the demo either. i was surprised that there were no links to getting the game from the PSN either.

Even tho i like the "boxart" for this game, now i've played the demo for it i'm not interested in getting it. the defeating giant enemies part of it was nice and then taking parts from the bodies of said enemies was a fun challenge, too. I'm not big into crafting games and as this demo didn't showcase that aspect of it's gameplay i don't know how it'd work in the final game.

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 8 - The Party Was Defeated!

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

It finally happened, in Part 8 the game managed to beat me. It started fine as i went back to town and stocked up on important goods. but it quickly turned out i didn't have enough. throughout my time in the Cavern of Ice, we were being hit hard and all characters were taking a lot of damage. for the most part we were managing ok, but then we had a fight where the enemy used ice magic repeatedly and defeated my team. in hindsight, perhaps i should've continued my assault and not worried about fleeing or my downed team mates. So i'll try again in Part 9!

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/0zQLSh9TjaQ

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 2 - 24th and 25th of September

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

This is Part 2.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/px2JkXPMgx4

Cloud Monday - Two Point Campus - Quick, Auto, And Saving On Exit Are Great For Cloud Playing

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing Two Point Campus on #PS4 via the #PlayStationPlus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model #PlayStation4.

I have Two Point Hospital on #Switch but i've never started it, so going in i wasn't too sure how it would play. thankfully the game has a fine tutorial that's helped with enough of the game's basics, but i've had to use experience and guess work for some of it.

one of the highlights about playing Two Point Campus is the save system and it's something the game should really highlight as it really helps when playing it from the cloud. with the PlayStation Cloud Streaming Service there's only a 20 second warning before you're disconnected. this makes being able to manually save or a very frequent auto save important. Two Point Campus has 3 different ways it saves, it seems to have a decent auto save that i've set to monthly, it has a Quick Save tho it never really defines what that means, and there's also save and exit which i didn't show in the video but it's something i experienced.

It wasn't the best streaming experience i've had. right at the game's title screen, we could see zebra striping artifacts on the screen. there were moments of macro blocking throughout this video, and there was even a time when nearly a third of the top half of the screen went grey. 

I switched the UI to Big, in the settings, so that helped make things more legible for those watching this video but it also meant things were still fine during the brief moments of macro blocking. the game's artstyle also helps with this, as does the game's ability to zoom it.

Overall, my time with Two Point Campus during this first part was pleasant and much less stressful as i knew i was able to save very easily. i'm looking forward to trying out part 2 because of this experience. 

Demo Play Thursday - Boxville 2 on PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Boxville 2. 

Back in September 2023, i checked out the demo for Boxville, https://youtu.be/cCxmbi3-Kio, and really enjoyed the art style. in that demo it was clear that the story was skipped so not to spoil it but we were playing from the start of the game. with this demo for Boxville 2, it just throws us into gameplay after the starting animation.

Point and click games aren't a genre i do well at, so in this demo i tried to explain my thought processes as i played so you could understand what i was doing. but by the end of this video, i don't think i had finished the section in the demo. but the game doesn't give us any information so i don't know for sure if i was finished, if i wasn't finished, or if this is how it should be played. but what was really frustrating with the demo was how it ended. most games take us back to a home screen, some games will have a trailer and/or screenshots at the end. this game was stuck with either the screen saying it's a demo or the pause menu.

This lack of information from the game wasn't good. it felt like it was designed for those who have played Boxville before and knew what type of game this was and how it plays. there's no tutorial, no introduction, no progress meter, and no hint system. for me, someone who's not familiar with the genre, it feels like a hardcore point and click game and not one that's approachable for new players.

It does look great, i really enjoy the art style and humour. and whilst it's not a great demo, i would actually recommend it. Boxville 2's hands off approach could be interesting for "souls like" fans and this a great way to try out a point and click adventure game that's just as hands off.

Backlog Conquering - Final Fantasy On PSP - Part 7 - Mt. Gulg And The Fire Crystal

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it. The newest game in the Backlog Conquering series is the PlayStation Portable version of Final Fantasy. this is the downloaded version of the game, but it is also available on UMD. To help with this playthrough i'm proudly using a guide from GameFAQS. here's the link, https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937909-final-fantasy/faqs/55625. i'm not following it exactly, but it's useful to have. 

Part 7 shows my journey into Mt. Gulg down to the Fire Crystal. there were a couple of moments early on where i was being hit hard and nearly lost Duncan again. near the end of my time in Mt. Gulg there was a dragon enemy that i encountered only once but in that encounter it nearly wiped my team in just one attack! i wasn't expecting to come across the boss fight when i did and i was expecting it to be more difficult than it was. i didn't panic and for both crystal boss fights i've had a clear idea what i'm going to do and why and it seems that is working. i ended this video having finished Mt. Gulg and in the next part i'll head to town and stock up before heading off to the next crystal.

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/QWXAyHh-R0s

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/95BsHWcN6K0

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/eMh6cvudEOA

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/LCrkwFxlEJs

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/6SKK1o1QGV0

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/lrgjxlOgUiI

Stories on Tuesday - Coffee Talk - Part 1 - 22nd and 23rd of September

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Coffee Talk from Toge Productions. I've downloaded it as part of PlayStation Plus.

Coffee Talk is one of those games i've heard people talk about, i've seen it online and in shops, but i know next to nothing about it other than there are stories being told. when i heard it on podcasts, people talked about it without getting specifics. so there are moments in this video where i'm by surprised by things. the biggest being that this isn't a game with just humans. 

I have downloaded this game from the PSN as it's part of PlayStation Plus, but i'm having some tech issues with it. it'd be interesting to know if anyone is having similar issues with the PS4 version of this game. i know it's built on Unity and there's another PS4 game i'm playing that's crashing to XMB that's also built on Unity so maybe it's a Unity issue. i haven't edited it out because the music in the game continues whilst the gameplay seems to have paused. in future parts, i'll just keep quiet so we can all enjoy the music.

An unwelcomed surprise was when i had to make Latte Art. i have no idea what i had to do, there was no tutorial or practice before the day started. so the panic is genuine and i wasn't happy with what i made. it's worse than when i played Tearaway as in that game i'm able to try and reset and try again. in Coffee Talk i don't think there's a way for me to do that, i think i can only choose to trash the drink and start again. trying to make a drink is also a little difficult. i don't know a lot of coffee drinks so most of what i'm making is just me guessing. this has resulted in my first bad drink already.

But the point of the series is to play the story that we get. so it's possible my drinks and mistakes will lead to a slightly different story. if it does, let me know in the comments how my couple of days differed to yours.

Cloud Monday - Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings - Part 2 - It Has Bugs And Issues, But I Recommend It

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings on PS4 via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

Across both parts, it's become clear that Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings isn't the best game ever made. I'm not sure whether this is unique to this emulated version of the game or if the original also has it's own problems. but these aren't game breaking bugs and are minor frustrations at most. but they are noticeable.

There's also no denying that the game design is well suited for playing the game from the cloud. But, as we've also seen across both parts, there are moments when it doesn't work quite as well. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings plays like a movie and there are often cinematic moments. but when there are moments of stream tearing, it does kinda take us out of these cinematic moments. it's because of this, i would also recommend downloading the game to try and preserve the cinematic mood.

personally, i'm going to continue playing Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings from the cloud. i'm satisfied with the performance of it being streamed from the cloud. i have enjoyed my time playing it and i genuinely want to see where the story goes. it's not the best but that doesn't stop my enjoyment of it.

Mobile Friday - Tribe Nine - A Polished Debut For An Action RPG With A Cool Graphic/Art Style

For this week's Mobile Friday i tried Tribe Nine from developers Akatsuki Games on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

Tribe Nine had been available as a pre-order on the app store for a little while now and i admit i kinda forgot about this game until it downloaded itself onto my phone. it's launch was the 20th but as i'm recovering from being sick i decided to wait a day. that decision might've helped as on the 21st the game got an update to help with server issues. during my first hour with the game, i didn't notice any server issues.

But what was a huge frustration was the additional data download. it was over 5GB. many of these games have them but what was frustrating with Tribe Nine was how it dealt with it. a recent example is the Infinity Nikki and in that video, https://youtu.be/hrqBnBzDM8w, we're given a music video to watch and listen to. with Tribe Nine, there's nothing exciting. there's just a near static screen and a progress bar. no music either. it took over 13 minutes to download this data as well.

So starting the game for the first time, the first impression from Tribe Nine isn't great. then it gets weird as we start to play an 8bit style rpg and our screen gets a crt filter put on it. but this is a nice weird as the app store screenshots show nothing like this. then there are people walking in the sky, and then this world all falls apart and reality starts to take over.

With this change of story it's also made clear that a mix of graphical styles are going to be used. when talking face to face, animated 2.5D characters appear on screen and look really quite good. when it comes to battles, it's full 3D characters in a 3D world. and when you're walking around in the world you're 16/32bit looking pixelart characters. i think it works, but it does take a little bit of time to get used to.

Combat is interesting, but i don't think they quite explain it well enough. there's the standard attacks of light and hard and their typical pros and cons. you have team mates fighting along side you and they seemed to be doing so smartly. as this is an action RPG, we're all running and moving around the arena dodging and attacking enemies. but there's another system at play called Tension. it's used by both us and the enemies, but for them it's a little different. for the enemies, as battles go on they get more tension. when their tension bar is full, the enemies attack full power and also randomly. this was clear to see when we had our first boss style fight. the enemy had been easy to dodge and counter, but as soon as their tension bar filled they were much harder to read, they attacked us randomly, and it really changed up how we fought against them. for us, this is where i don't think the game successfully explains or demonstrates the tension system well. everything up to this had been decently explained and clearly shown in battles. but after using it i don't know how the tension system works for us good guys. there's a combo system that's introduced first and that seems clear. when it's possible to use it, top right of the screen the heads of our team mates appear and you press them and they attack. the tension seems to add to this. i think when our tension bar becomes full we're able to use the combo system and then end with a super attack. but i don't know how to charge the tension bar or what the blue squares next to the floating heads mean.

Even tho Tribe Nine has an extra data download, the rest of the gameplay experience has been great and i'm really curious about the rest of the game, the world, and more importantly i want to experience more of the story. i do recommend it, BUT you have to download it and start it at home first to get that big data download.

Version 1.0.2 Played.